Punjabi varsity VC faces sackSyndicate members to meet Governor
against BoparaiPatiala, August 17
The battle between the government and the vice-chancellor of Punjabi University Swaran Singh Boparai came out in the open today.

Residential
Colonies New policy gets government nodThree Zones Formed
Mohali, August 17
The Punjab government has notified the new policy for establishing residential colonies. The entire state has been divided into three zones based on its growth potential. While Mohali has been placed in the zone which has the highest growth potential in coming years, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana have been placed in the high potential zones.

Kanak-Dal
Scheme
9,600 card holders lift stock on first day
Chandigarh, August 17
More than 9,600 ration card holders have lifted the stock of wheat and dal from different warehouses across the state on the very first day of “kanak-dal” scheme.

Blue cards distributed in Bassi Pathana
Bassi Pathana, August 17
The Food and Civil Supply Department has completed the distribution of blue cards to the atta dal beneficiaries in the Bassi Pathana Sub-Division. This was stated in a press release issued by assistant food and civil supply officer Sajjan Singh.

Close shave for 35 as bus catches fire Beas, August 17
Nearly 35 passengers of the Punjab Roadways bus going from Amritsar to Shimla had a narrow escape as the gas cylinder placed in it caught fire due to leakage early in the morning.

The Punjab Roadways bus
which caught fire after an LPG cylinder in it leaked on the
Amritsar-Jalandhar road on Friday.

Ferozepur in for major revamp
Ferozepur, August 17
Concerned over the decline in the growth rate, finance minister Manpreet Badal stated that efforts would be made to improve the fiscal condition of the state, which he termed as satisfactory at the moment.

Bathinda, August 17
The building of the local Civil Hospital has started posing a threat to the lives of patients and their attendants as a section of its projections has started falling and plaster of the roofs has started peeling off.

A patient lies in a ward of the civil hospital, Bathinda, below the area of the ceiling of which the plaster has peeled off.
— Photo by S.S. Sonu

Follow-up: Poison in Jails
Reports differ on cause of inmates’ deaths
Chandigarh, August 17
The mystery over a series of unexplained deaths of inmates in jails of Punjab due to insecticide poisoning has deepened further with officials uncovering a crucial piece of information.

Chandigarh, August 17As opinion is sharply divided among top leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal ( SAD) on withdrawing the facility of free power given to farmers, the move in this regard has been dropped for a while.

Now, Khalsa panel targets Ashutosh
Amritsar, August 17
In another cause of worry for the state government, the Khalsa Action Committee
(KAC) has decided to launch a mass movement against another controversial godman --
Ashutosh, chief of the Divya Jagran Jyoti Sansthan (DJJS) in the Doaba region, for his alleged
anti-Panthic activities from August 19.

Ludhiana, August 17
Simranjit Singh Mann, SAD(A) chief was released from the Central Jail after three months and three days along with 16 of his party colleagues late last night. The lone women arrested with them, Bibi Gurdeep Kaur Chatha from
Batala, also walked free.

Sangrur, August 17Of the 120-foot breach in the Ghaggar river at Chandu village (near
Khanauri), 90-foot breach was today plugged by the district administration in assistance with the villagers by 5 pm. Another 15-foot breach is likely to be plugged later today and the remaining 15-foot breach will be left open for the flood water to enter the Ghaggar back from the standing crops.

Patiala, August 17
SPICMACAY, Patiala, org-anised a musical evening with the Grammy Award winner Pt Vishwa Mohan
Bhatt, at Thapar University auditorium.The creator of the Mohan Veena and winner of the Grammy Award, Vishwa Mohan has mesmerised all with his pristine pure and delicate fiery music.

‘Sheesha’ released
Patiala, August 17
A musical compilation, ‘Sheesha’ in Hardil Khab’s voice was released by Pammi Bai and Dr Harkesh Singh
Sidhu, excise commissioner, after a press conference at the Mohan Continental hotel, here today.The
company’s director Harvinder Singh Sharin, video director
Bobby Bajwa, Sachin Ahuja and others were also present on this
occasion.

Both nations want peace: Pak writer
Amritsar, August 17
Britishers had created an atmosphere of communalism in Punjab on the basis of language and people are still suffering for that. Despite all this, it’s a matter of pride that people have preserved its rich traditional heritage. These views were expressed by Pakistani writer Janab Maqsood Sakib while interacting with the faculty and students of the School of Punjabi Studies at Guru Nanak Dev University here.

A social worker par excellence
Sangrur, August 17
Speaking on the life and works of a great Pakistani social worker Abdul Satar Idi, translator of Idi’s autobiography in Punjabi, Sarbjeet Singh Chhinna said Idi had started his social work in the field of healthcare.

Dera seeks more time
Bathinda, August 17
Even as the district police authorities today seemed satisfied to a certain extent with the response given by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, head, Dera Sacha
Sauda, to questions put to him by a team sent from here in connection with a case registered against him, the dera functionaries have sought more time in this connection.

Review blacklisted Sikhs’ cases: Dhindsa
Sangrur, August 17
Secretary-general of the SAD Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa today asked the union government to form a committee to review the cases of all “blacklisted” Sikhs, so that the names of all those Sikhs whose names had been wrongly included in the list could be deleted. These Sikhs had shifted to foreign countries during militancy in the state. He said the names of 80-90 Sikhs were still on the list of the Central government and could not get visa to visit India.

Arrested man not from BSF
Jalandhar, August 17
The BSF today clarified that Sarvan Singh, who was arrested from near Kakkar village in Amritsar district along with 95 grams of heroin, was not its employee.

Radio
listeners air their grievances
Patiala, August 17
The Radio Listeners’ Welfare Club organised a meeting today during which members from all over the region discussed problems affecting the FM in
Patiala.

Patiala, August 17
Chief forensic investigator, Patiala Bureau of Identification, Dr Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan was adjudicated the Best Paper Presenter on Comparative Analysis of Left and Right Hand Writings at the 9th Indo-Pacific Congress on Legal Medicine and Forensic Science that concluded recently at Colombo.

High Court
Notice to Punjab on felling of forest trees
Chandigarh, August 17
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Mahesh Grover, today issued a notice to Punjab over a PIL filed by the Environment Protection and Welfare Society, a
Ludhiana-based NGO.

Reprieve for Dawar
Ludhiana, August 17
Former parliamentary secretary Surinder Dawar has got reprieve from the court in the alleged Rs 600 crore bribe scam related to the Punjab Polloution Control Board.

Badal caseHostile witness count goes up to 20Rupnagar, August 17
Five more witnesses turned hostile today in the Badal disproportionate assets case in the court of special judge
G.S. Saran. With this the total number of hostile witnesses has swollen to 20. Keeping this in view, the public prosecutor has moved an application in the court seeking summoning of investigating officer in the case former
SSP, vigilance, Surinderpal Singh.

After mealy bug, now it’s whitefly
Ludhiana, August 17
As if the mealy bug wasn’t sufficient, now it is the whitefly, which has hit the cotton crop. According to scientists at Punjab Agricultural University here, the whitefly has caused extensive damage to the cotton crop in cotton-growing belt and non-traditional cotton growing areas.

Villagers spur teachers’ transfer by locking school
Bathinda, August 17
The Punjab government transferred two teachers from Government Senior Secondary School, Deon village, after a large section of its residents locked the school after getting agitated over the apathetic attitude of authorities concerned towards their problems.